On Tuesday, 12 April 2011, Christine Lagarde, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry, participated in the spring meeting of the Franc Zone finance ministers.

At the meeting, also attended by Charles Koffi Diby, Minister for the Economy and Finance of Côte d’Ivoire, Christine Lagarde “paid tribute to the calm, restraint and principle of reconciliation which President Ouattara has constantly advocated”.

After deploring the “serious attacks perpetrated against WAEMU (1) institutions and their staffs, with the military occupation of the national agency for the Central Bank, Banking Commission and Regional Stock Exchange, an asset shared by the WAEMU countries, Christine Lagarde welcomed “the action of the BCEAO (2) which, with all the other regional institutions, managed to safeguard the region’s financial stability”. In the view of the Minister, “The Union and monetary cooperation within the Franc Zone will both emerge strengthened from this ordeal”.

Assuring Côte d’Ivoire of France’s full support in this period of reconciliation and reconstruction, Christine Lagarde announced that France would provide “in the next few days, as soon as the money flows and security have been restored, €400 million of exceptional financial support, designed initially to finance emergency expenditure for the people, city of Abidjan and resumption of essential public services. Subsequently, the aid is also to be used to get economic activity going again and settle overdue contributions to the international institutions./.

(1) West African Economic and Monetary Union, often known by its French acronym UEMAO (Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine).

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